Teaching Kids to Clean

This week I am talking about teaching kids to clean over on The Honest Company’s Blog. I’ve recently been reading a book called The Parenting Breakthrough. It’s all about how to teach your kids the truly important life skills they will need to be truly independent. Things like how to save money, work hard and of course, clean. I particularly love the helpful tables included in the book of what skills are appropriate to teach at which age, such a useful resource — I just wish I’d read it sooner!

Someone once told me, “the days are slow, but the years fly by.” I’m sure that’s advice you’ve also heard. We’ve all heard it… so much that it’s practically a cliché. Yet that doesn’t make it any less true. As a mother of four, with my oldest being 12 and looking far more like a woman than I care to admit, I can attest to the truth of those words. It’s sad really. Also a bit overwhelming, to think that I should technically be more than half way done raising her, training her and preparing her… in just SIX SHORT YEARS she’ll be an adult.

Teaching kids to clean is important, but if you’ve been scared of handing over cleaning chemicals that contain who knows what, then you’re going to love Honest’s household cleaners. The Honest Company has always listed the ingredients in their cleaning products, even though they were not required to by law.

Even with safe cleaners, it’s smart to make sure you teach your kids basic safety. Whenever I give my kids a new chore, I like to do it together the first time. This way I can walk them through the critical steps and be sure to emphasize any important warnings. (i.e. Don’t use the cleaner as a squirt gun to spray your brother!)

I finally got around to creating a chore chart for our kiddos, and I was able to make it editable so you can use it too! You just need the free Adobe Reader software. You can even change the name at the top, so you can make a personalized list for each member of your family if you want.

Frame, laminate, or place the list in a sheet protector and you can use a dry erase marker to reuse it week after week.

Download the Editable & Free Printable Chore Chart

You might also want to check out my free printable Dry Erase Menu Board that comes in several colors.